I Thought You'd Never Ask
by Mandi96
Summary: JF Following the events of "Now the Final Fury" Theo takes Lily out on the long-waited date... with some un-foreseen results. Not for TheoxLily fans.


**A/N: Takes place after the final episode.**

**----------**

Theo couldn't keep the grin off of his face as he stood in front of the mirror. He looked at himself critically in the mirror and wished, just for a moment, that his brother was here to help him.

He couldn't see anything wrong with his dark blue sweater over his white button-down shirt. To make it more casual he had worn jeans. _Is this good enough? Or should I be more dressed up? Maybe I'm too dressed up Luen would know. I mean, we're only going to Marini's, it's not _that_ fancy. ARGG! Okay, I'm going as I am and that's final. _

_Teeth brushed: check._

_Hair combed and gelled: check_

_Wallet: check_

_Shoes: check… wait, what?_

Theo shook his head and looked at the clock. It read 7:10. He was supposed to be picking Lily up at 7:15. He rushed out of his room and skidded down the hall. He stopped in front of the yellow door. He knocked slowly.

**-----PRJF-----**

Lily looked up from her magazine as she heard Theo's knock. _7:10; early as always._ She chuckled to herself as she grabbed her coat from its hook. She turned and took one extra look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a simple yellow sleeveless blouse and black skirt with black tights. _Good enough. After all, it's Theo, and we're not going to anyplace really fancy._ She slipped on her flats and stepped out of the room.

"Ready to go?" She asked.

"Yup, let's go." Theo held his arm out for Lily to take, which she did hesitantly.

**-----PRJF-----**

Twenty minutes later they were seated at their table. The car ride had been silent and somewhat awkward.

"Hello, and welcome to Marini's. I am Giuseppe your waiter for this evening. Are you ready to order? Perhaps you would like some wine to start off the evening?" The waiter spoke with an Italian accent and Lily couldn't help but smile at the small, dark and portly man.

"Alright, we'll have a bottle of – "

"I'll just have water." Lily interrupted with a smile at the waiter.

Theo cleared his throat and said he'd have the same. The waiter left with a smile and said he would be back to take their order soon.

"Theo," Lily said impatiently. "You know we're not supposed to have alcohol. We're not even legal yet."

"Our battle is over. We're Masters now, and I thought that just once wouldn't hurt. The wine makes the food taste better and brings out the flavour."

"We're still not legal." Lily said firmly. They were silent for a few moments, each looking at the menu and trying to think of something to say.

"Have you – "

"I think I'll – "

They both looked up and caught the other's eye. They laughed, each indicating for the other to go first.

"Have you decided what you want to order yet?" Lily asked first.

"I was just about to say that I think I'll have the Linguine."

"I haven't eaten at a lot of Italian restaurants, so I don't know what most of these are. Maybe I'll just follow your lead and have what you're having."

"Well, Linguine is usually served with…" Theo spoke for three minutes about the finer points of Linguine and how it should be cooked, and about all the different kinds you can get.

Lily's eyes widened. She didn't have a clue what he was talking about. She gave him a weak smile. "That sounds good. I think I will have some." They lapsed into silence again.

"Hello again! Have you decided what you would like to order yet? I recommend – "

"That's alright, we'll get two orders of the Linguine Carbonara." Theo said and rolled his eyes at Lily.

"No, I want to hear what you recommend." Lily smiled again at Giuseppe.

Giuseppe smiled at her and resumed his speech. "I would recommend the spaghetti. You may be thinking 'Oh, what's so special about spaghetti. I could just go to the Spaghetti Factory and get some there.' But I, Giuseppe, say that you have not tasted spaghetti until you have Marini's Marinara Marvel. The spaghetti is the best thing on the menu, a little-known secret. It comes with a loaf of freshly baked garlic bread, just out of the oven. If the signora is vegetarian, I could have them make it without the meat especially for you. This is what I, Giuseppe, recommend."

"That sounds lovely, Giuseppe. I think I will have some. And I'm not a vegetarian." Giuseppe gave Lily a dazzling smile and left with a bow.

"I thought you were going to order the Linguine with me." Theo said, slightly miffed.

"I was, but the spaghetti sounded so good and that little man is so nice."

They didn't speak again for quite some time.

Theo bit to corner of his lip. _This doesn't seem to be going well. I wonder what's the matter? We went out before and things were fine, but now all of a sudden things are really awkward._

_Awkwaaaarrrrrrd._ Lily thought as she tried to keep from looking at Theo. _What's the matter? All of a sudden things are really different between us._

"So," Lily said, determined to make conversation. "That was some final battle, huh?"

"What? Oh yes. It was amazing."

"I'm so glad that I was right about Camille."

"You're always right, Lily." Theo said and put his hand over hers in what he thought was a romantic gesture.

Lily looked down at her covered hand and frowned slightly. Then she forced a smile at Theo. She gently slipped her hand away, then quickly reached for her glass of water.

Theo withdrew his hand and took a sip of his own. _Come on, Theo. Think! There has to be something you can talk to her about. What would you talk about if it was one of your regular nights?_ "So Luen got accepted into music school."

"Oh really? That's great. He'll love that. When does he start?" Lily replied, relived to have something to talk about.

"He starts in a month. He's very excited about it and says that he's finally going to commit to it and study very hard." Theo gave a small smile. "We'll see how that goes."

"Luen should do very well. He'll be with a lot of other musicians; I think he'll be able to commit."

"Yeah, well we'll see." Theo stopped talking as Giuseppe set their plates down before them.

"Enjoy your meal, and if you need anything, anything at all… just raise your hand and give a snap. I will be there immediately." Giuseppe bowed and walked away.

"So how's your brother doing?" Theo asked as he took a bite of his food.

"He's doing really well. He just got traded back to the Sharks, and he's really happy to be back in California."

"How did he do this season?"

"He thinks they did pretty good. Hockey is his life, you know. As long as he can play, he's happy."

Theo gulped. "I suppose he'll be coming to visit you often, huh?"

"That's right." Lily smiled tenderly as she thought of her big brother. "He says he'll be living just a few hours away and that we can see each other every weekend."

"That's great Lil." Theo smiled weakly. Lily's brother Robin didn't seem to like him much. _It's not that I don't like him, it's just... the guy plays Hockey, he's three times as big as I am and very protective of his baby sister. No, it's not dislike... he scares me. A LOT._

"Hey, we should all get together this weekend. I'd love for him to meet everyone. So far he's only met you. I'd like him to meet RJ, Casey, Dom and Fran."

"Except Dom and Fran are away in Europe," Theo pointed out.

"Oh darn, I'd forgotten that. Oh well. He can meet RJ and Casey at least. Oh, and Jarrod and Camille. But let's just leave out the part about them trying to take over the world and destroy us, okay?" Lily smiled conspiratorially at Theo.

They lapsed into silence again, each focused on eating their meal. When they were finished they decided against dessert and decided it was time to leave. Giuseppe brought them their bill. "So, are we going Dutch, or did you want me to pay for everything?" Theo said, confused.

"Oh, no it's okay we can go Dutch." Lily said as she opened her purse, slightly disappointed.

They left the restaurant and Theo walked Lily back to JKP. "Wait," Theo said, grabbing Lily's arm. "I want to do this before we go inside."

"Do what?" Lily asked, confused.

"You know, the end-of-the-date kiss." Theo said with a little smile.

"Oh, erm, I guess. Sure." Lily leaned down and they shared an awkward kiss. When they parted they stood for a few moments staring at each other.

"Theo, I have to be honest with you." Lily took a deep breath.

"Lily, this was the worst date I've ever been on." Theo said frankly.

Lily stared, open-mouthed. Then she started to laugh. "Same here. I'm sorry Theo, but that kiss was just so…"

"Awkward?" Theo lifted the corner of his mouth. "I agree. You know, for the past few months I've been dreaming about that. Going out on a date, kissing, us being boyfriend and girlfriend. Now that it finally happened, it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be." Theo gave Lily a friendly smile. "Let's just be friends."

"Theo, I'm so glad. This whole date has been so awkward, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings, and I've known for a while how you felt about me, so I felt I might as well give it a try. You never know. Friends?" Lily said with a smile.

"Friends." Theo and Lily hugged.

**----------**

**A/N: I honestly believe Lily and Theo make better friends than they do boyfriend/girlfriend.**

**I also honestly believe that there are sparks between Lily and Casey.**

**This will be a CaseyxLily eventually.**


End file.
